No. 18 WSU men’s basketball (23-7, 14-5 Pac-12) will face UW (16-14, 8-11 Pac-12) Thursday. The final game of the season, as well as the final Apple Cup of the Pac-12 era, is finally here. It is a rematch, with the Cougs taking a tough overtime game by a score of 90-87 Feb. 3.
That game was a nail-biter, with the Cougs forcing overtime on a timely wide-open dunk by Isaac Jones before taking it home with a Myles Rice game-winner in the extra period.
When that game tipped off the Cougs were 15-6, 6-4 in conference. Now, more than a month later, they have lost only a single game and have won eight. A lock for the NCAA tournament, all the Cougs have left to play for is bragging rights, and there is no better team to get them against than Washington.
While the Huskies are having a disappointing year, they are not a bad team. Keion Brooks Jr., the face of the team for two seasons now, is the only player in the Pac-12 averaging more than 20 points per game. He leads the closest behind him by 1.4 points, sitting at a 21.3 average on the season.
Last time against the Cougs, he scored 35 points, and over his last 10 games, he has averaged 23.4 points per game while leading the Huskies to a .500 record. His 3-point shooting numbers have decreased a touch, but he still sits at nearly a 39% average on the season.
Husky guard Sahvir Wheeler’s struggled were a big reason the Cougs won last time out. While he is the Pac-12 leader in assists, he is also in the lead for turnovers, averaging 6 and 3.3 respectively.
His six turnovers, including two huge ones down the stretch, lost that game for the Huskies. Odds are that will not happen again, and if he plays well it completely changes the dynamic of the Husky offense in a way the Cougars could have trouble dealing with.
However unlikely that win was, the fact that the Huskies had the lead in the first place was similarly unlikely. That is because it came in large part on the back of Moses Wood, a fifth-year senior who knows only one move: shoot.
While his game is limited, he is an elite shooter, and he proved it last time out by hitting five of six attempts from 3-point range, good for an unreal 83.3%. He powered the Husky offense alongside Brooks, and he will no doubt be a bigger focus of the WSU defensive game plan in Pullman.
Offensively, the Cougs have some rust to clean up. Jones was a leading candidate for player of the year until a recent stretch of rough games, now known to be likely caused by illness. He has had a while to get better, and should be primed for a return to form against the Huskies.
Jaylen Wells is coming off another huge game, leading the Cougs with 27 points. He has been arguably the Cougs’ best player late in the season, scoring under double-digits only once since the start of 2024.
He had 19 last time he faced the Huskies, which was a career-high at the time. Since then he has surpassed that number three times, and he is only getting better. He will look to end the season with a bang against a Washington defense that did not manage to stop him last time.
Wells and the Cougs tip-off against the Huskies 7 p.m. Thursday in Beasley Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on FS1.
